September 22, 2006

A Shepherd’s Message

By Archbishop Daniel N. DiNardo

I write these words to you - for the first time as Archbishop of this great local Church -   concerning Life, particularly concerning our annual celebration of Respect Life each first Sunday of October.  That Sunday this year is October 1.  I write briefly.  I hope to write clearly.  I want to write about personal human life.

We profess that God is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible.  This act of speech is a declarative use of “I” or “We.”  It does more than give a piece of information.  When I say: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,” I am seeing and taking things in quite a radical way.  All things have origin, existence and goal in an act of the one true God, however mysterious such Divine Providence may appear to me at any given time.  Further, when I profess that human beings, that the human person, is made “in the image and likeness of God,” I am stating a truth that makes all the difference in the world.  I do not just see the human person in a new light; I see the human person bathed in light and singular from the first moment of his or her existence.  Each human person is singular!  NO ONE gives a person human dignity, not parents, not the Church, not the State.  Each person is conceived with that dignity, endowed with that immeasurably blessed singularity.  Other persons, the culture, the state recognize and acknowledge that dignity and singularity; they do not create it.  To attack and destroy innocent human life at any stage, but most especially at the vulnerable early stages of life when a human person is unborn and dependent or at the end of life stages when a human person is elderly, frail and demented, is a distortion of truth and reality of immense proportions.  That any one of us, or any parts of our culture, would become accepting or complacent about such a distortion is a sign of the seriousness of our current situation.

The Faith that teaches us about the human person and the conviction that grounds our action in protecting the human person demand accountability.  We are called to participate directly in public life, to help form consciences to reflect the truth about the human person and help enact laws and policies that protect the lives of all; especially the lives of the weak and vulnerable, unborn children, human embryos targeted for destructive research, and those who are cognitively impaired, disabled or dying.  We engage in such work with clarity and with charity.

There are many cries and appeals justly made on behalf of human rights.  For example, there are cries for rights of home and culture, for health and decent work.  Such appeals are good, but they become false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended and acted upon with maximum determination.  Talk will become empty if it is not enacted in public deed and public persuasion.

Let us speak the truth in love on the human person and act on this truth.

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